Biplane fighter aces

Soviet Union

Mladshiy Leytenant Petrukhin

In February 1942, Petrukhin served in the 3rd eskadrilya of 71 IAP-KBF. This unit was at the time equipped with both I-152s and I-153s.

At noon on 14 February, four I-16s and four I-152s carried out a reconnaissance mission in the area Voronovo-Mga-Tosno-Maluksa. The flight of four I-152s from the 3rd eskadrilya led by Mladshiy Leytenant Petrukhin, was attacked by two Bf 109s near the village of Turyshkino.
After the second attack, one I-152 went into a spin and hit the ground. The pilot was killed. The three remaining Soviet fighters managed to shot down one of the Bf 109s, which crashed near Lake Dologoye at Lodva. This victory was shared between Mladshiy Leytenant Petrukhin, Mladshiy Leytenant Markov and Serzhant Savosin.
The German fighter was flown by the Knight Cross-holder Hauptmann Franz Eckerle, Gruppenkommandeur of I/JG 54, who shot down the I-152 (his 59th victory) before being shot down himself (the victory was claimed as a I-153 at 14:25). German front-line soldiers reported seeing the pilot of a Bf 109 bailing out over Soviet territory. According to accounts by Soviet soldiers who were captured in this area shortly thereafter, furious Soviet soldiers brought Eckerle into a forest, where they lynched him. Eckerle was posthumously decorated with the Oak Leaves.